DEAD OR ALIVE: The World Wide Web

Posted on September 11, 2010 by Mike Dickman

by Mike Dickman

Is the Web Dead?

I just finished reading an article in WIRED magazine which really got me thinking: Is The Web Dead? To get a better understanding of this position, think about how you use the Internet each day. You get up in the morning, log in to Facebook, check your wall, check Twitter and see if you have any more followers, and log into Pandora so you can stream your favorite music all day at work. You’ve been all over the Internet, but you have yet to hit the Web.

Today’s Internet visitors are spending most of their time on Apps such as Facebook or Twitter. Facebook has now even surpassed Google in the amount of visits and duration of visits. YouTube is the largest search engine on the Internet and you’re reading this article on a Blog, on the Internet and off the Web.

With the growth of social sites, the Web is losing steam and lots of traffic. And, with the likes of Starbucks and Coca Cola gaining more than 90,000 new Facebook Fans PER DAY, it would seem inevitable that the reign of the Web, could be dead.

The Web is just one of many applications that exist on the Internet, which uses IP and TCP protocols to move packets around. The revolution is the architecture, not the specific applications, which is built on top of it. Today, the content you see in your browser (largely HTML data delivered via the HTTP protocol on port 80) accounts for less than 25% of the traffic on the Internet – and that is shrinking. The applications that account for more of the Internet’s traffic include peer-to-peer file transfers, email, corporate VPNs, the machine-to-machine communications of APIs, Skype calls, online games – including Xbox Live, iTunes, VOIP phones, Netflix movie streaming and more.

In April, I re-posting an article released by Morgan Stanley which stated that the number of users accessing the Internet from mobile devices will soon surpass the number of those accessing from PCs. This will only accelerate the rate at which the Web is left behind as more applications, which will make web browsing from a mobile device easier, are accessed by these users. For the sake of an optimized “web” experience, users will forgo their general purpose browsers.

So, as the Internet moves from our desks to our pockets and our view history confirms that we are an application minded social society, where do you see the Web is headed and do you believe THE WEB IS DEAD?

Responding to Bad Publicity Online

Posted on August 30, 2010 by Mike Dickman

This article first appeared on Bloomberg Business Week.

Every business loves social media marketing when customers are raving about them in Facebook status updates and Twitter tweets, but what happens when there’s some bad press on a social network? How do you handle a potential public blemish without making it into a full-fledged stain? While the downside of social media marketing is that we cannot control what people say about our businesses, we can use these powerful connectors to make things right.

The key is not to engage in a public dialog with the person who is making the negative statement. A he-said-she-said battle in a public forum could exacerbate the situation. You can and should reach out to the person as quickly as possible with a simple “How can we help you?” and then attempt to take the dialog offline.

On Twitter you can use a Direct Message, and on Facebook you can use the Messages feature to communicate privately with disgruntled customers out of the public eye. Or, in your how-can-I-help response, provide a customer support line for the customer to call. (Make sure it’s open and staffed when you’re giving out the number—you don’t want an already unhappy customer dialing two minutes later, only to find out the office is closed.)

Once offline, treat the situation as you would an unhappy customer coming into your store or calling on the phone. More than likely, if you remedy the problem, the once disgruntled and vocal customer will again take to social media to praise your response, potentially turning bad publicity into good publicity.

What about a public response from you directly? Forget it. Instead, let your fans come to your aid. That’s one of the many upsides to social media marketing: Happy customers will provide both word-of-mouth referrals and defend those companies they prefer doing business with. Let these people be your social media knights in shining armor.

Eric Groves

Senior vice-president, global market development

Constant Contact

Do You Know How Your Clients and Prospects Use Social Media?

Posted on July 21, 2010 by Mike Dickman

This article first appeared on American Express’ OPEN Forum and was written by John Jantsch.

What if you could dial into your clients’ and prospects’ needs and desires? Would that not be a great advantage to add to your marketing tools? Following are 10 social media tools to help you do just that.

Mailing list companies and direct marketers have always practiced the art of data appending to create better, more personal lists.

The idea is to take a list with basic contact data and add details acquired from other data sources, such as magazine subscriptions, association membership and even specific purchasing behavior. The end result is a list with a much richer level of information that allows the mailer to personalize offers and communications based on this greater level of personal information.

In today’s socially driven world, marketers are also able to append lists with data given and acquired freely in social networks. Now, adding a customer’s Facebook or Twitter data has become a smart and powerful way to create more relevant offers and socially driven customer relationship management.

Some companies still claim that their customers and prospects don’t use social media. I doubt that’s true these days for any industry. But this is sure a great way to know for certain.

In addition, this kind of information makes it much easier to identify your advocates and champions — the ones that are out there spreading the word in social channels and who might be really good candidates for you to target for special attention.

While you can probably search and find the most important social data available for, say, your top 25 clients, adding social data to a list of 1000 prospects could prove a bit tougher.

All kinds of services and tools are evolving to tackle this growing need. Below are several tools that small businesses can use to add social information to their contact records.

1. Flowtown – All you need is an email address to get social data on a contact.

2. RapLeaf – This tool started as a monitoring tool and now offers full appending.

3. Xeesm – A bit more comprehensive search lots of networks and creates a Social Address Book.

4. BatchBook – Full featured online CRM tool was one of the first to bake social appending into the mix.

5. ACT!2010 – The simple desktop CRM allows you to add social data right into records.

6. Outlook 2010 – With the addition of something called the Outlook Social Connector you can add social data to Outlook.

7. Xobni – A popular Outlook plugin that brings social CRM functionality to Outlook.

8. Rapportive – Social CRM built into GMail.

9. SocialCRM for Salesforce – Add on to Salesforce.com to bring social data into records.

10. Twitter Export – Export all of your Twitter followers and then add them to tools above.

John Jantsch is a marketing coach, award winning social media publisher and author of two best selling books, Duct Tape Marketing and The Referral Engine.

Image credit: amandabhslater

Ten ways to advertise your business on Facebook

Posted on July 16, 2010 by Mike Dickman

by Kevin Gibbons

This article was first posted on Econsultancy

The marketing potential of Facebook is huge, but many companies struggle to devise a strategy that’s suitable for such a social platform.

But there are more than 400m active users of Facebook, meaning whatever your product or service, there’s a huge potential market there.

So, how can you use the platform to promote your brand? Here are some of the ways marketers can approach it.

Make a Facebook page

Let’s start with the most obvious; do you have a Facebook page?

Since the website began inviting users to ‘like’ business pages rather than ‘become a fan’ of them, it’s much less intrusive and people seem to be far happier about this slightly more subdued way of showing their approval.

If you’re marketing a lively brand or product, don’t make do with a dull standard Facebook page, make your landing page lively and interesting.

Promote your page offsite

Don’t expect your potential fans to find you on Facebook without a little support. Add a ‘Find us on Facebook’ button to your website, email marketing communications and even printed brochures, so that people know you’re on there.

You may disagree, but I think that having a Facebook page shows that a brand is interactive and personable. So, even if people don’t bother looking you up, they may be left with a better impression of your brand.

Make your page interesting

What are you going to do with your Facebook page? Will you post deals, links to blog posts, competitions, notes, photographs of your corporate summer party (guilty!)?

You need to add content to your page so that your fans have something to interact with and so that they see your brand in their news feeds, building brand awareness.

Have a clear content strategy before you start building the page, otherwise you could suddenly be left scrambling for something to say.

Have a clear idea of what you want people to do

What are you hoping to achieve with your Facebook page? If it’s just brand awareness then you want content that people will interact with on the page. If you want to get fans to click through to your site, you’ll need links to offers and exclusives.

If it’s to create brand advocates, you need to create applications and games that people will share with their friends.

If you don’t know what you hope to achieve, then you won’t be able to create appropriate content.

Use Facebook ads

Will your marketing budget stretch to some paid Facebook ads? You can use keywords from people’s profiles to target your advertising at relevant demographics, (female friends who’ve become engaged tell me they see nothing but weight loss ads from the moment they change their relationship status!).

So, you can target people of a specific age, gender, educational level, workplace, even location.

It is a fairly cost-effective way to market your brand. You may even decide to use your advertising to drive people towards your fan page and give it a proper kick off.

Build a Facebook app

Can you create an interactive app? Some of the cleverest Facebook marketing is app-based, with the potential to turn viral and suddenly create enormous interest in your company.

You can build games, quizzes and other types of dynamic content that people will use and share.

If you don’t have the skills inhouse to create this kind of content, many business have sprung up that will develop an app with you to market your brand.

Make your content easy to share

Do you have a blog back on your website? Linking works both ways, you shouldn’t just be driving people to your site through Facebook.

In fact, you should also give people the opportunity to alert their Facebook friends to interesting content on your company website. Add a button allowing people to share the article on Facebook, as well as to Tweet it, Sphinn it, Digg it, Buzz it, or whichever your social platforms of choice are.

Make it as easy as possible for people to spread your brand message.

Create and interact with Facebook groups

Join some relevant Facebook groups and maybe even create a few. This will allow more people to see your brand, giving you the chance to build a fan base without paying for advertising.

Of course, this is a dangerous tactic if you’re a bit blunt. You mustn’t simply charge in and start trying to sell to people who are busy socialising. Instead, you should offer tips, support and advice, building confidence in your brand.

Is there a cause or campaign your company believes in? Maybe you’re a debt management company campaigning against payday loans, or a restaurant campaigning for more local food to be eaten in your town?

Create a group that promotes your cause and you’ll be able to interact with people who wouldn’t necessarily ‘like’ a brand but are very willing to support a campaign they believe in.

Give your fans exclusives

If someone has updated their Facebook page to show friends that they like your brand, you really ought to reward them.

Give them exclusive deals, sneak previews of new products, discounts – special offers to show you appreciate their support.

Use Facebook analytics

Having created a Facebook page, you need to need to monitor the success of the page. Facebook’s analytics tools allow you to see what kind of content works well.

Once you’ve created a page, you’ll be able to access this information through Facebook Insights, meaning you can see how people are interacting with your content, what demographics they belong to, which countries they are in, how many people have signed up, how many people have unsubscribed.

Make use of this information. It’s free and it will inform your developing Facebook strategy.

Don’t forget

If you’re a marketing professional, it’s not just your business you can promote through Facebook – you can also market yourself and build connections with other people in your sector.

There are groups, discussions and a thousand other ways to connect. You can even have different settings for your work-related ‘friends’, meaning they never need to see that picture of you after 12 vodka shots…

HOW TO: Create a Facebook Page Vanity URL

Posted on June 22, 2010 by Mike Dickman

If you don’t already have a Facebook page or your business, go create one. With over 500 million active users, Facebook is a powerful network to tap into to expand the online footprint of your business.

The next step in personalizing your business page is to get a username to create a vanity URL (customized web address). By default, your Facebook page will get a randomly assigned number and URL (facebook.com/pages/yourbusiness/123456789), but last summer, Facebook made it possible to customize your Facebook page URL (facebook.com/yourbusiness).

Choosing a username is optional but adds an extra level of professionalism to your business page and gives you a shorter, more memorable web address for your business page. Don’t hesitate – you want to ensure that you get your business name before someone else does.

Here’s How to Create a Facebook Page Vanity URL:

1.) Visit facebook.com/username to walk through the wizard to choose the username for your vanity URL.

2.) Choose a username for your personal profile. Before choosing a username for any of your business pages, you must choose a username for your personal profile. If you don’t have a personal profile yet, you’ll need to create one. Facebook will give you a few suggested options based on your name. Select one of the suggested options or write out your own. Check the availability and confirm your choice.

Photo Credit: Facebook

3.) Choose a username for your business page. It’s best to simply choose your business name. You are commiting to this username forever, so you want to make sure it will stick with you as your business grows and changes. If you have multiple pages, you can choose a username for each.

What Are The Requirements?

Usernames can only include alphanumeric characters (A-Z, 0-9) or a period (.).
You can only have one username per page.
Your page must have at least 25 fans to establish a vanity URL. This is to prevent name squatting.
Usernames are not transferrable or editable.
Some generic words (such as “flowers” or “pizza”) are not available.
If your trademarked name has already been taken, you can notify Facebook of this intellectual property infringement.
For more FAQ, check out the Facebook Help Center.

Read more (This article originally appeared on HubSpot.com)

11 Myths of Social Media Marketing

Posted on May 26, 2010 by Mike Dickman

by Tom Pick

This article first appeared on MyVenturePad

Though social media marketing is rapidly advancing in terms of adoption and sophistication, many marketers and business executives still struggle with it. They wonder if their organizations are doing enough, if they are doing things right, even if they should be involved in social media at all. This confusion is partly due to some still-common misconceptions about social media marketing. As the goal of Social Media is Simpler Than You Think was to demystify social media marketing, this post will attempt to de-myth-ify it.

1. Social media is so easy we can hire an intern to do it. Because social media is fundamentally about conversations, the individual(s) behind your social media activities is often perceived as the public face of your company. This person is answering questions about your products and/or services, responding to or redirecting complaints, sharing interesting content, providing more information…you’ll probably want to be a bit careful about who gets this responsibility.

2. Social media marketing is really hard. True, there are techniques that work better than others, guidelines that are good to know, rules of etiquette to follow and common mistakes to avoid, but the general skills called for aren’t all that uncommon, and the specifics are teachable. It helps to be creative, curious, articulate, friendly and helpful. Okay, so not just anyone can do it, but it’s not rocket science either.

3. Social media is only for the young. Argh, no! On the consumer side, the largest cohort of Facebook’s user base is the 35-54 age group, and the fastest growing is the 55+ cohort. On the producer side, the most important attributes are interpersonal skills and industry knowledge. Age is irrelevant in social media usage, and life experience is a plus for social media marketers.

4. Social media is free. Um, no. While recent studies show that about half of marketers say that social media reduces their overall marketing costs, it is by no means without a price. The primary budget effect of social media marketing is to shift costs from media buying to labor. The tools of social media are (mostly) free, but the time, effort and expertise required to make social media marketing effective has real costs.

5. Since social media marketing is labor-intensive, we should offshore it. Ooh, not a good idea. While offshoring works well for tasks like IT consulting services and software application development, it tends to be less efficacious for market-facing activities. Thoughtful companies keep their SEO efforts local (to avoid link-spamming, for example) and after evaluating all of the costs, many are even moving call centers back onshore. And see myth #1 above.

6. Social media marketing success is all about rules and best practices. Not really. True, there are guidelines as to what works well (being sincere, helpful and knowledgeable) and what doesn’t (trying to use social media sites as one-way broadcasts of your marketing brochures), but the field is new enough that many of the “rules” are still being written. While there are some techniques that seem to work well and are worth replicating, and others that should clearly be avoided, there’s also a great deal of space for creativity in this rapidly expanding and evolving area.

7. Social media marketing has no rules. Now, just because there isn’t an established cookie-cutter approach to social media marketing success doesn’t mean there are no rules. Don’t be excessively self-promotional, don’t try to automate everything, be sincere, add value—there aren’t a lot of rules, but these are a few very important ones.

8. Social media marketing gets immediate results. Almost never. Sure, you may run across an example somewhere of this happening, just as you may hear about a couple who got married three weeks after they met. It can happen, but isn’t common and shouldn’t be expected. Social media is about building relationships and influence. It takes time, but the payback can be much more lasting than a typical “marketing campaign” as well.

9. Social media marketing is too risky. This fear is most common in the medical, financial services, and other regulated industries. And it’s certainly true that there are situations where a company has to be somewhat cautious about its social media participation and content (another reason to keep myths #1 and #5 in mind). By all means, be aware of your specific industry and regulatory environment and put necessary safeguards in place. But people in your marketplace—customers, prospects, analysts, journalists, shareholders and others—are talking about your company and/or industry across social media channels right now. The real risk is in ignoring those conversations.

10. Social media marketing is new. Not really. Certainly the tools are new: Twitter has only been around since 2007, Facebook since 2006, and even blogging has been popular for less than a decade. But social media marketing is fundamentally about participating in and influencing the direction of conversations about your industry and brand. Those practices are timeless, but social media has increased the velocity and magnitude of such conversations.

11. Social media marketing doesn’t apply to my business. There are isolated niches where this is true. For example, if you build weapons systems for the U.S. military, you not only don’t need social media marketing, it would probably be best to avoid it. And there may be a few other such situations. For virtually every other type of business however, someone, somewhere is discussing your brand, your industry or your competitors in social media. You’re missing out if you’re not listening and participating.

Mike Dickman

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